Our Pick
Posted on @rawstates
Cyrus McCormick's reaper
1831
Walnut Grove Farm, Raphine, Rockbridge County, Virginia
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
A horse-drawn machine demonstrated in a Rockbridge County wheat field in 1831 cut in a day what a man with a cradle scythe cut in a week, and American agriculture stopped being limited by how many hands could be found at harvest. Jo Anderson, an enslaved man on the farm, worked on it alongside McCormick and got no patent. The blacksmith shop and gristmill still stand. The company that grew from it became International Harvester in Chicago.
That was 1 of the hidden places.
Location: historic site
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